USA does it again. US forfeits mixed-gender 4 x 400 at World Jrs.

I’m a coach with an athlete on the U20 roster (I’m not there myself). Apparently the athletes were taken to the track, warmed up, spikes on with every intention of running. A team was set, plus alternates. Then 10 mins before call time the staff came and told them they weren’t actually ever entered in the mixed relay. Not making this up.

Wtf!

What happened is that the US screwed up and didn't get the mixed 4x400 entry done correctly and submitted on time. Which means the US mixed 4x400 team was never officially entered. The deadline was several weeks ago.

Since then the US has been arguing with World Athletics in an attempt to get an exemption and be allowed to enter late.

The US was still arguing with World Athletics up until the very last minute which was why they told the 4x400 team to warm up. The US figured it was better to have a team ready to go just in case their protest was successful than to have a successful last minute protest and not have a team ready to go.

Of course the best option would have been for USATF not to screw up the entry in the first place. How incompetent does an organization have to be that they can't even manage to fill out an entry form correctly? Pathetic!

Wow. Just wow.

Who's gonna take the hit for this? Who, personally ,was responsible for submitting the entry?

And who gained from this? China. They secured the bronze medal.

Max apparently can't be bothered to make sure he has a reliable administrative support staff of some sort. What exactly are they doing down the hall?

Just ONE person? What organization doesn't have someone else double checking really important things like entries to a world championship?

Pathetic!

Nike pays USAT&F $25 million per year for this level of incompetency?

Why should USA be given an exemption to compete? Which they weren't.

What was their basis for an exemption?

Nobody at USATF will be held accountable for this. That's not really something they do.

I guess they got inspired by the Nigerian federation after they messed up Favour Ofili's entry in the Olympics 100m...

apnews.com

Nigerian national champion not entered for Olympic 100, blames country's track federation for mix-up

Nigeria’s national champion in the women’s 100-meter sprint won’t run the race at the Olympics because she says her country’s track federation didn’t enter her into the field in time.

Open link

Someone is getting fired.

Just a reminder, Max’s salary is 11% of all of USATF’s revenue.

You would think, but lack of accountability is an ongoing theme with USATF.

All the teams that traveled to Peru and entered teams got to run in the prelims. The US traveled to the event but were not actually entered! Insane. Don't blame China. This has nothing to do with China.

p.s. The boy's 4x100 failed on the FIRST exchange! Brutal.